“One out of five Nigerians is at risk
of premature death from cardiovascular (heart) diseases such as heart attack,
stroke or diabetic complications”, Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole has revealed, the
minister said hypertension is the leading cardiovascular decease in Nigeria and
can result in stroke if untreated.

According to
him, an extrapolation from a 1997 report put the prevalence of hypertension at
over 20 per cent. This, the minister said, suggests that one out of every five
Nigerian is hypertensive.

Current
estimates, he noted, shows that death rate from stroke is 40-50 per cent within
the first three months of diagnoses, while 39 per cent of those who survived
stroke after three months died within a year, with 12 per cent developing
severe disability.

Adewole spoke in Lagos on Tuesday, November
29thduring the First Annual BlackTie Gala of Tristate Heart Foundation (THF),
chaired by former Osun State Governor
Chief
Bisi Akande, to raise N500million in support of
cardiovascular care in Nigeria.

Tristate Heart Foundation’s sister organization, the Tristate
CardiovascularAssociation (TCA), which operates
the Tristate
Heart and Vascular Centre inside Babcock
University Teaching Hospital, Ilisan-Remo-Ogun
State has done over 100 open heart surgeries and numerous cardiac
interventions, with 60 per cent of the patients unable to pay their bills.

“Unhealthy diets contribute
significantly to the development of NCDs in Nigeria. Sadly, there is widespread
low consumption of proteins, fruits and vegetables and increasing patronage of
fast food outfits by the population”.

The Minister
spoke further, he said “There is also
large promotion of sweetened products such as carbonated drinks, pastries,
candies and other refined sugars, while excessive intake of salt is promoted by
food addictives such as monosodium glutamate common in delicacies such as Suya,
kilisi, isi-ewu, ngwo-ngwo, among others”. “The high caloric intake resulting
from refined sugars promote overweight and obesity especially in a country
where exercise is not a norm” minister Adewole pointed out.

The minister
praised Tristate Heart Foundation for the “laudable initiative” of galvanizing
support for those who would otherwise die due to inability to access treatment
for their heart conditions.

Former Osun State Governor Chief Bisi Akande who is
the Chairman of the Board of Tristate
Heart Foundation said the foundation was set up to tackle the incidence of
deaths from heart deceases, which he said accounts for premature death of about
17.3million people every year.

He said the
funds would help the world-class Tristate
Heart and Vascular Centre in Ilisan-Remo-Ogun
State, under the leadership of Prof Kamar Adeleke, to treat those
of little means.

The former
All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman said: “I, Bisi Akande, currently a 78-year-old man, have decided to do my
part by dedicating myself completely to an initiative that will improve the
health of Nigerian citizens and prevent us from needless death”.

The
Foundation, he said, plans to sponsor a minimum of 150 open heart surgeries in
the next one year. “Let’s change the
fortune of that one child out of every 100 children who will be born with a
heart defect. Let us rescue that man and that woman whose level of income
cannot support open heart surgeries”. The ex-Governor appealed to guests at
the dinner.

“It gives me
great pleasure to receive you, most cordially, this evening at our historic Black Tie Gala Night, an event designed
to restore hope to hopelessness, faith to the faithless, strength to the weak
and pride to our nation.

This
gathering is a demonstration of collective efforts geared towards putting an
end to the deadly menace: Heart Disease and Stroke, which continued to be the
leading cause of death globally among the non-communicable diseases. The heart,
as you know, is the most important organ in the body.When it stop, life ends, ambition crumbles
and homes shattered! We must all realize that without the heart, there is no
life, The heart is life and life is the heart.

I come to appeal, therefore, that you
overwhelmingly support the local efforts and develop local skills which would
place value on human lives with dignity.

This
evening, I am elated because I have seen and tasted what good medical practice
is outside of this country and I am glad that I have equally found the same
global standard cardiovascular care in this country—Tristate HeartCardiovascular
Centre. I commend the dedication and visionary leadership of the
President/ CEO of Tristate Cardiovascular Associates, Prof Kamar Adeleke for this feat. I could say ä big “’thank you’”
to you and your team for coming back to this country to restore hope to our
health sector. I equally thank other Nigerian health professionals that left the
comfort of the western world to come back with you on a rescue mission to the
motherland. I also use this medium to encourage our Nigerian physicians outside
the shores of this nation, to come back and rescue us from the jaws of untimely
death.

The essence
of our gathering here this evening is not farfetched, we are here to join hands
and prevent the next heart from stopping prematurely. We are here to prove to
the world that we are noble people with the capacity to find the solution to
our problems. We are here to take the bull by the horn and say enough is
enough. With the quality of people in this ballroom this evening, I am excited
and confident that we can beat the deadly disease that continued to wrought
pains and tears in most families.

This event
is the culmination of an enormous collective effort, which began early this
year after the board of trustee of Tristate Heart Foundation considered
it necessary to leave no stone unturned in the fight against cardiovascular
disease in Nigeria.

You may be
wondering why you need to support this initiative. Are you aware that heart disease is
responsible for premature death of about 17.3million lives every year? Or that one
out of every two people you have seen today is prone to this deadly disease?

Research has
shown that the strongest driver of heart failure which affects nearly 1 in 2
Africans over the age of25 is undiagnosed and untreated hypertension. Who does
not know someone who is hypertensive?

It is sad to
know that while developed countries like Europe,
America and some Asian countries are recording a drop in the incidence of
cardiovascular disease, Africa is
recording a sporadic increase. The question is why?

The answer
is very simple—lack of knowledge and poverty.

It is time
to begin meaningful contribution in health and educational sector through the
provision of adequate infrastructural support, skilled manpower and commitment
to research. Let us desist from recounting tales of woes all the time. Let us
depart from identifying problems while we neglect providing the solutions to
our tales of woes.

Enough of
over analysing the problems! What we need now are solution providers. As I
address you this evening, my heart bleeds!

Let me
recall my experience during one of my routine visit to Tristate Heartand
Vascular Centre. I met a young boy of eleven years old transferred from
one of the States in the South-South region of Nigeria to Tristate Heart andVascular
Centre, the boy was wrongly diagnosed by a Professor of Medicine and
has been moved from one place to the other in the last five years, the wrong
treatment led to multiple organ failures for this young boy to the extent that
the parent were told that the only option left for the boy is heart transplant,
and the probability of getting this done is zero.

Even when
they managed to get a donor for the heart yet the boy still needs a minimum of
$200,000 every year to keep him alive.

Ladies and
gentlemen, distinguished members of medical profession, I salute your courage
in what you are doing in this country to provide care where you have a very
little support and motivation. However, we must know that there is honour in
humility.

Medical
profession is a noble profession that must be practiced with integrity and
selfless spirit; practitioners must desist from unnecessary ego and
self-seeking activities. I believe it is imperative that healthcare providers
are treated with dignity that they deserve and their remuneration must be such
that they do not need to struggle unnecessarily to live a decent life. This
will be a great motivation that will reduce unethical rent seeking and sharp
practice by care givers.

To reverse
the negative perception associated with medical practice in this country and
cut down significantly the cash outflow associated with seeking medical care
overseas, all the government in Nigeria must create the enabling environment
for those in private and public practice.

The federal
government must help our hospitals to be competitive by removing duty imposed
on medical equipments and consumables, by granting tax holiday to medical
devices manufacturers, by encouraging local production of medical supplies and
consumables.

Above all,
we must ensure and enforce health insurance scheme for our people because if
health insurance is made compulsory then organisation like ours will have fewer
objectives to contend with. We must stop paying lip service to health sector
because a healthy nation is a productive nation.

I, Bisi
Akande, currently 78 years old man, have decided to do my part, by
dedicating myself completely to an initiative that will improve the health of Nigerians
and prevent us from needless death. I am glad that I and every member of the
board of Tristate Heart Foundation have found a worthy partner in Tristate
Cardiovascular Associates, our objective as a foundation is to make
life meaningful and hope to achieve it, starting from tonight.

By raising
funds for indigent patients- especially children under the age of 10

We plan to
sponsor minimum of 150 open-heart surgery in the next one year

By embarking
on aggressive campaign on the prevention of heart diseases among our people

We shall
collaborate with those in academia to fund research effort in the area of
cardiovascular medicine”.